Roger Fuller Harrington (born December 24, 1925) is an American electrical engineer and professor emeritus at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

. He is best known for his contributions to

computational electromagnetics Computational electromagnetics (CEM), computational electrodynamics or electromagnetic modeling is the process of modeling the interaction of electromagnetic fields with physical objects and the environment. It typically involves using computer ...

with his development of method of moments (MoM). Harrington's 1968 book, ''Field Computation by Moment Methods'', is regarded as a pivotal textbook on the subject.

Biography

Harrington was born on December 24, 1925, in Buffalo, New York. He started majoring in electrical engineering in 1943 at

; his studies were interrupted in the following year by World War II. During this time, he served as an instructor under the Electronics Training Program at the U.S. Naval

Radio Materiel School The Radio Materiel School (RMS), operated by the United States Navy, was the first electronics training facility of America’s military organizations. During the 1920s and 1930s, it produced the core of senior maintenance specialists for the Navy� ...

Dearborn, Michigan Dearborn is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 109,976. Dearborn is the seventh most-populated city in Michigan and is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States pe ...

, while working as an electronics technician. He completed his studies after the war, receiving B.S. and M.S. degrees in 1948 and 1950, respectively. Briefly remaining at Syracuse University as a research assistant and instructor, he started his doctoral studies under Victor H. Rumsey at Ohio State University, receiving his PhD in 1952. Harrington returned to Syracuse University following his doctoral studies, working there as a professor until his retirement in 1994. Following his retirement, he briefly worked as a visiting professor at University of Arizona. During his tenure at Syracuse University, he has worked on research projects for the U.S. Army Signal Corps,

Office of Naval Research The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an organization within the United States Department of the Navy responsible for the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Established by Congress in 1946, its mission is to plan ...

, General Electric and the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. He has also held visiting professorship positions at University of Illinois in between 1959 and 1960, University of California, Berkeley in 1964 and the Technical University of Denmark in 1969. Harrington is a recipient of

IEEE Centennial Medal The IEEE Centennial Medal was a medal minted and awarded in 1984 ''to persons deserving of special recognition for extraordinary achievement'' to celebrate the Centennial of the founding of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (I ...

, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Distinguished Achievement Award and IEEE Electromagnetics Award in 1984, 1989 and 2000, respectively. In 2014, he was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal in electrical engineering for his contributions to the study of electromagnetics. He currently resides in Wheaton, Illinois with his daughter.

Research

Harrington has published two standard engineering textbooks, ''Introduction to Electromagnetic Engineering'' in 1958 and ''Time-Harmonic Electromagnetic Fields'' in 1961. In 1968, he published ''Field Computation by Moment Methods'', which introduced the unified and generalized theory of method of moments (MoM), an integral equation method for solving electromagnetic problems. The development of the method stemmed from Harrington's initial interest in using electromagnetic fields in thermonuclear fusion research. Harrington further developed the method in his future publications; method of moments later became one of go-to methods in the study of antennas,

integrated circuit An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...

s and waveguides, among others. Harrington's further work included the study of

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visi ...

and

scattering Scattering is a term used in physics to describe a wide range of physical processes where moving particles or radiation of some form, such as light or sound, are forced to deviate from a straight trajectory by localized non-uniformities (including ...

in bodies of revolution, dielectric scattering, field integral equations and theory of characteristic modes. Harrington also expanded

Lan Jen Chu Lan Jen Chu (August 24, 1913 – July 25, 1973) was a noted electrical engineer and a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Chu is noted for his work on the fundamental limitations for small ant ...

and

Harold Alden Wheeler Harold Alden Wheeler (May 10, 1903 - April 25, 1996) was a noted American electrical engineer. Biography Wheeler was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to William Archibald Wheeler and Harriet Marie Alden Wheeler (a descendant of John and Prisc ...

's theory on the fundamental limits of electrically small radio antennas;

Chu–Harrington limit In electrical engineering and telecommunications the Chu–Harrington limit or Chu limit sets a lower limit on the Q factor for a small radio antenna. The theorem was developed in several papers between 1948 and 1960 by Lan Jen Chu, Harold Wheel ...

, which yields a lower bound for the

Q factor In physics and engineering, the quality factor or ''Q'' factor is a dimensionless parameter that describes how underdamped an oscillator or resonator is. It is defined as the ratio of the initial energy stored in the resonator to the energy los ...

of a small radio antenna, is named after him.

Selected publications

;Articles * * * * * * * * * * * ;Books * * * ;Book chapters *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrington, Roger F Living people 1925 births Scientists from Buffalo, New York 20th-century American engineers Electrical engineering academics Syracuse University College of Engineering and Computer Science alumni Syracuse University faculty Ohio State University alumni Microwave engineers IEEE Centennial Medal laureates People from Wheaton, Illinois United States Navy personnel of World War II University of Arizona alumni American electronics engineers American telecommunications engineers American engineering writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers Fellow Members of the IEEE 20th-century American male writers